Foreign Currency

[Brightlight (Paul)]

Is it possible to get an electronic ‘wallet’ attach to my account so that I can put Euros or other foreign currency in for travelling abroad? As the app knows I’m abroad all my spending would come out of the currency wallet and this would stop the conversion charge.

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

Monzo are reportedly testing accounts in other currencies already, in preparation for international expansion -

Would you do your banking with a tech startup? – The Guardian

Monzo featured in The Guardian today. Reveals Monzo’s ambitious plans to reach a billion users worldwide and that @tom visited McDonalds four times on holiday… Would you do your banking with a tech startup?

Once those accounts are rolled out, I assume that the functionality that you’re requesting would be a possibility, although Monzo may only be intending to offer accounts in the user’s local currency.

If this is developed, the functionality that you’ve described sounds good!

[JPiz]

@Brightlight

and this would stop the conversion charge.

but there isn’t a charge

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

But yes, as Jpiz points out, there are no fees or charges when you use Monzo abroad -

Using my Monzo card around the world

Monzo is your best option, there’s no fees (even hidden fees, like the one’s your “no commission” services charge) for conversion of currencies or using ATMs. Foreign ATMs may charge you for withdrawing money, of course but that’s not a Monzo charge. You check the MasterCard exchange rate here. Take a look at this blog post for more tips https://monzo.com/blog/2016/07/06/how-to-travel-with-mondo/ You could also try creating a ‘Monzo in country name’ topic, to ask for advice about using Monzo…

you’d only need this feature if you wanted a way to receive transfers in foreign currency / store foreign currency etc.

[Brightlight (Paul)]

I understand there are no fees for using your card abroad. But does that include the ‘non Stirling’ transaction fee?

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

@Brightlight

does that include the ‘non Stirling’ transaction fee?

Yes, that’s a fee that your bank is kindly adding onto your transaction for you Monzo doesn’t charge you that fee.

If you spend money in a foreign currency using your Monzo card abroad, you are not charged any fees at all.

[Brightlight (Paul)]

I love this bank even more now. Thank you ️

[Citibadger]

And the legacy banks wonder why people are fed up with their poor service and extra hidden charges for spending your own money!!?!

Monzo to the rescue!

[Jkb114 (Josh Bray)]

I think the only reason someone would want to do this is to secure a certain exchange rate. If a currency is very volatile then it might be good to buy a load when it peaks.

[anon44204028]

if you could buy at that rate and transfer it from your main GB£ account to a €UR pot you would need a €UR denominated card linked to that pot or if you later have to use your GB£ card to spend the money it will be converted at that time and it best to use a card where no conversion needed

[PhatPheddy]

@alexs

you’d only need this feature if you wanted a way to receive transfers in foreign currency / store foreign currency etc.

Thats my situation…

I make money in euros / gbp and less frequently USD… Would love to put my EUR into a EUR pot (and spend there) and my GBP into a GBP pot.

[Naji (Naji Esiri)]

Currency pots like this aren’t aren’t in our immediate plans. It’s a nice idea, and something I imagine our users may explore further using the API in the future, as Tom mentioned here

@tom

FX hedging or trading is not a use-case that 99.9% of consumers currently care about, so we’re unlikely to build it into the core product. But we will eventually offer accounts in a number of currencies, so it’s entirely possible that people could build this functionality on the API.

[cgkr (Christos)]

There is also the Revolut paradigm where with a single card the following happens:

• if transaction-currency pot has enough funds > it is used.

• else > gbp pot is used using MasterCard conversion rate.

[baronanyangwe]

Paul, I’ve been thinking of a similar thing for a while now. To build on the suggestions by Christos, PhatPheddy and others, what about the following suggestion for Monzo:

1. Account: A Monzo account can have multiple currency “wallets” in the account (GBP, EUR, USD, others)
2. Currency transfer:
   a) You could have those currencies transferred to your Monzo account from another account
   b) You could deposit different currencies into the account
   c) You could purchase currencies at an agreed spot rate with Monzo, and have that deposited in the different currency wallets
3. Spending abroad:
   a) When you travel, Monzo can ask you which “wallet” you want to use to pay for the transaction (so if you want to buy something worth $10 you can pay from your dollar wallet or the equivalent from your GBP wallet at the prevalent spot rate (let’s say £6.67); or
   b) When you travel, you pay for everything from the predominant account currency (let’s say GBP), and then in the background Monzo works out which conversion would be cheapest for the user by comparing the amount that would be deducted from the predominant account at the prevalent spot rate versus the amount that would be deducted from the currency wallet, and then deducting the amount from that wallet
   (For example, you want to make a purchase costing $10. Monzo calculates that the purchase would deduct £6.67 from your predominant account at the prevalent spot rate of £1:$1.5. However, when you transferred dollars to your dollar wallet you locked in a rate of £1:$2, and so $10 then only cost you £5 - therefore it would be cheaper for you to pay for the $10 purchase in dollars).

Just a few thoughts

[mk1]

Revolut is a really good example of how to do this

[Drions (Pablo Lopez Quiros)]

Hi!
Can a European user set up Monzo in €?
My brother lives in Spain & would love to join us.
Thanks

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

Hi

I’ve moved your post here, as there’s some info on this earlier in the thread (TL;DR not yet, unfortunately).

[Drions (Pablo Lopez Quiros)]

Thanks Alex. We’ll wait 4 it

[Drewznewz (Anthony Andrews)]

Just an idea:
I’m currently travelling in Belgium and decided to monzo the money for the shopping across to my friend. Would there be any scope to do a contacts transfer and select the € currency instead of £?

Sorry if it’s already been stated.

[BobT (Bob)]

Monzo currency is in GBP. If you want € you can withdraw it from an ATM.